You are here

Character&Context

Psychology News Round-Up (March 7th)

By Dave Nussbaum

Juliana Schroederexplains how Scarlett Johansson’s disembodied voice in Spike Jonze’s Her can make an inanimate object seem human:

Among the many big questions that the movie Her tackles is that of humanness: What does it mean to be human? Why does Samantha seem as human – or even more human – than other characters in the movie despite being only a voice? In Her, Johansson’s voice brings Samantha’s character to life, and Theodore’s love for her feels not just believable, but entirely plausible. But how? How can a person fall in love with just a voice?

Recent psychological research conducted by Professor Nicholas Epley and I, at the University of Chicago, suggests an answer. According to our research, currently in preparation, voice may uniquely communicate presence of mind and , ultimately, fundamental aspects of being human.

“Humor is something people inherently enjoy,” he told me. “But there also needs to be something wrong, unsettling, and threatening in some way. We call those violations.”Our caveman ancestors lived in a world rife with physical threats. There was relief in discovering that a rustling in the darkness was a mouse rather than a saber-toothed tiger.“Before people could speak, laughter served as a signaling function,” McGraw explained. “As if to say, ‘this is a false alarm, this is a benign violation.’”

Max Nesterak (@maxnesterak) of thepsychreport.com reports that a new journal is coming out soon with a focus on psychologically informed public policy: “The brainchild of UCLA’s Craig Fox and Duke’s Sim Sitkin, Behavioral Science & Policy is a peer-reviewed journal set to launch online this fall and in print early next year, whose mission is to influence policy and practice through promoting high-quality behavioral science research. Articles will be brief, well written, and will all provide straightforward, applicable policy recommendations that serve the public interest.”

The Atlantic article makes some excellent points about the Iranian negotiations, especially in terms of historical events and people’s perceptions of fairness, but it undermines its own credibility by labelling these insights as neuroscience or by gratuitously referencing the brain. It’s as if the authors drank brain soup before writing their article, and just as they’re making an interesting historical or political point, they hiccup out a nonsense neuro reference.

About our Blog

Character & Context is the blog of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP). With more than 7,500 members, SPSP is the largest organization of social psychologists and personality psychologists in the world.